4 Eating together: planning for meals, kiddush and holidays

When we eat together, we can connect on many different levels. We connect to the food, and if you have the chance to serve food from a local farm or a producer you know, then the stories of the people and the land that grew the food can be just as nourishing as the food itself. We connect to each other around a table, too; food gives us the chance to have longer conversations with folks we may regularly just see in passing. And we have the chance to learn and celebrate together, in a long chain of Jewish tradition. Planning communal meals can be complicated by people’s busy schedules, institutional kashrut polices, space and time challenges, and so on. The tips in this section will help you navigate some of these challenges and help you create a memorable feast—whether the occasion is simply bringing your community together, giving your weekly kiddush table a sustainable-upgrade, or planning for big holidays like Rosh Hashana and . 26

Advance Planning Sourcing your food

There are a number of different questions Use the tips in Chapter 1 to help you decide you want to ask when you’re contemplating a what food to serve. Remember, you may not be communal meal: able to serve a 100% kosher sustainable meal. Rather, aim for choosing elements that really • How many people am I expecting? What stand out, and making sure that people notice is the ideal number for achieving my goals them. Signs on tables or an announcement (intimate conversation, bringing the whole to point out the local flower centerpieces, the community together, etc.). Will this be donated chocolate from a sustainable chocolate kid-friendly or geared more towards adults company, or the seasonal fruits on the fruit (hint: a 40-min speech by a guest speaker, platter will start to educate your community not so kid-friendly). Be clear about your about the available options. expectations to your guests.

• Should we use the institution kitchen/social Planning moments for connection hall? (You may wish to explore this option if kashrut is an issue, if you’re expecting a lot of guests, or if you don’t wish to A good meal has a good start and a good open up your home. Other advantages ending. People should feel welcomed and include guests feeling comfortable in a included. They should understand that there is familiar space, access to large-scale kitchen a focus to your meal, and know what that focus equipment, janitorial staff (though you is. Here are some suggestions for bringing should confirm that they will be available to help you)

• Or maybe a picnic in a park? The obvious So we can all eat together challenge to this option is weather; a park Communal meals pose some challenge for with a covered picnic location is a great folks with strict dietary concerns, whether this way to ensure success regardless of the is kashrut, allergies or other food choices. Here elements. If you do plan an outdoor event, are some suggestions to help guests navigate consider: can everyone find the location? the options with grace: do you need a permit for a large gathering? • Have labels and pens available, and Will other activities in the park contribute to encourage guests to write out ingredient or hinder the atmosphere you’re trying to lists to label their dishes. You may wish create? to have them indicate the kind of kitchen where the food was prepared (kosher, • Hosting at home? Great for smaller vegetarian, prepared on Shabat, etc.) gatherings and building community. • Set aside one table for kosher food, one Navigating kashrut concerns can be a table for vegetarian food, one table for challenge. See the note below with some everything else. suggestions for helping to make all your • Have a conversation with your guests guests feel comfortable. ahead of time to find out about special dietary needs. Let them know what you expect to be able to accomodate, and where they may wish to simply bring their own food. 27 mindfulness to your meal: • Opening Circle: An opening circle lets people get a sense of who they are going • Food Blessings - Jews have been saying to be eating with. It lets them share a blessings over food for over 2000 years. piece of themselves that may not come The very fact of pausing before a meal to up in ordinary dinner chit-chat, which offer thanks can be a profound moment helps deepen relationships. It helps to of connection--with the people that grew focus the group on a particular question and produced and cooked the food, with that will be discussed during the evening the people around your table, with God learning. And it lets everyone be heard. and with creation. Jewish food blessings People might already be chatting in small offer an accessible entry point into Jewish groups, so gently ask for everyone to quiet tradition, but if the traditional wordings down, introduce yourself and explain what are a challenge, consider inviting people is going to happen first, then pose the to articulate their own blessings, or offer question, then indicate a person to start. a kavanah (intention) before the meal in • Learn some texts together: On the next addition to saying traditional blessings. page, we’ve included some of the texts from Food For Thought: Hazon’s Sourcebook on Jews, Food and Contemporary Life to help you think about your relationship to food Setting a Kavanah and Jewish tradition. You may want to use these texts as a conversation starter at a In the Jewish tradition, intention or communal meal. kavanah is an essential part of meaningful action. The term kavanah comes from the tips for hosting a sustainable meal Hebrew root meaning to direct, intend, at your institution: focus. The were very clear that living a meaningful Jewish life involves • Pick one part of your meal to source from combining both the actions we do and the local food producers, and tell your guests intention we bring to those actions. about it (ie, your desert course could be all local berries or fruit, or Fair Trade chocolate). For example, the Rabbis stressed that prayer was not just about the act of reading • Buy from companies listed in the Producers or saying the words of a prayer. If you do Guide, and highlight their company values not pray with kavanah, actively thinking on menu cards or in a program. about the words you were saying, you have not fulfilled your obligation to pray. • Serve grass-fed meat. If sustainably- produced meat isn’t available, make your Applying this idea to eating will allow us meal vegetarian, and tell your guests why. to be much more aware of what we are putting in our mouths. It is important that • Plan for thoughtfulness: hold an opening we eat with intention and appreciate all the circle, set a kavanah, have discussion work that went into the meal–from nature, questions prepared for every table, hold a farmers, the farm workers, and whoever guided food meditation and/or say a grace was responsible for cooking the meal. after meals together.

Adapted from “Intention (Kavanah) and • Use reusable, recycled or compostable Time” by Jeffery Summit, Tufts Hillel plates and silverware. 28

Texts on Food and Mindfulness to eat the tangerine section you’ve already taken.” Jim was startled into realizing what he was doing.

Seeing again, for the first time It was as if he hadn’t been eating the tangerine at Because we eat two, three or four times every day, all. If he had been eating anything, he was “eating” it’s easy to forget how wondrous that is. It’s like his future plans. the sunrise or the sunset. The sun rises and sets every day. If it’s an especially beautiful sunrise, we A tangerine has sections. If you can eat just one may notice it. But if it’s not “special” we may not section, you can probably eat the entire tangerine. even see it. But if you can’t eat a single section, you cannot eat the tangerine. Jim understood. He slowly But if we can see it as if for the first time, each put his hand down and focused on the presence sunrise becomes very special and very beautiful. of the slice already in his mouth. He chewed it And so with each meal we create. thoughtfully before reaching down and taking another section. – Bernard Glassman, Instructions to the Cook – Thich Nhat Hanh, Miracle of Mindfulness

Radical Amazement As civilization advances, the sense of wonder Gratitude means noticing declines. Such decline is an alarming symptom of Why is eating a vegetable one of the steps to our state of mind. Mankind will not perish for want freedom? Because gratitude is liberating. And of information; but only for want of appreciation. how do we get there? We focus on the details. The beginning of our happiness lies in the understanding that life without wonder is not Close your eyes: You are holding a piece of parsley, worth living. What we lack is not a will to believe which you are about to dip into salt water. But but a will to wonder. before that – what things needed to happen to get this parsley into our hands? Who placed Radical amazement has a wider scope than any the parsley seeds into the ground? What sort of other act of man. While any act of perception or conditions did it grow in? Was it a hot summer? cognition has as its object a selected segment of What did the soil feel like? How was the parsley reality, radical amazement refers to all of reality; harvested? What did it look like at that perfect not only to what we see, but also to the very act of moment when it was mature and ready to be seeing as well as to our own selves, to the selves picked? Who picked it? Where did the parsley that see and are amazed at their ability to see. travel next? Was it packed into cardboard boxes? How did it travel to the store or farmer’s market? – Abraham Joshua Heschel, God in Search of Man Who unloaded and unpacked it? Who placed it on a scale and weighed it so it could be purchased? Think for a moment about the number of hands Eating a Tangerine that played a part in getting the parsley to this I remember a number of years ago, when Jim and table and into our hands. I were first traveling together in the United States, Now open your eyes: Look a little more closely at we sat under a tree and shared a tangerine. He the parsley in your hand – what does it look like? began to talk about what we would be doing in How many leaves does it have? What does that the future. Whenever we thought about a project specific color green remind you of? What does the that seemed attractive or inspiring, Jim became so stem feel like? Imagine what it tastes like… immersed in it that he literally forgot about what he was doing in the present. He popped a section Take a piece of parsley and dip it in salt water. of tangerine in his mouth and, before he had Then we say the blessing together, and then we begun chewing it, had another slice ready to pop eat. Blessed are You, Adonai our God, Sovereign of into his mouth again. He was hardly aware he was the universe, who brings forth fruit from the earth. eating a tangerine. All I had to say was, “You ought – Leah Koenig (Pesach 2006) 29

Hosting a Sustainable Kiddush

The weekly Kiddush table is a place of blessing, schmoozing, and simcha (happiness). But it also has the tendency to generate a lot of waste, and unhealthy eating habits. The list below offers a few resources and ideas for making your kiddush table healthy and sustainable. The same ideas can easily be transferred to your next social event, Hadassah meeting, book club, or canned food drive. try serving the kosher grape juice from • Start a kiddush committee at your Glendale Farms. synagogue. Get together a group of people who like to cook and give your usual caterer • Family style. Try serving Kiddush family a break. Try offering a “homemade Kiddush” style – with the food on small platters on once/month where everything is cooked by tables, rather than vast quantities at a long the volunteers and is mostly locally-sourced buffet. This allows people to see what’s and organic. available and encourages them to take healthy portions. • Go free range. Egg salad is a staple of the Kiddush table. Try making egg salad from • Hummus! Hummus is relatively simple cage-free eggs. to make fresh in large batches, and tastes amazing. Here’s a great and easy hummus • Veggie . Serve vegetarian cholent recipe from Epicurious.com at your Kiddush. Try featuring a new grain like brown rice, barley, or millet. • The salatim. Try serving pickles, dilly beans, or other value-added products from • Feature seasonal fruits. Fresh fruit platters local farms. Invite the farmers to speak to are commonly found at Kiddush tables, the congregation about their farm during and are both beautiful and healthy. But if Shabbat lunch. you live outside of California, it can be next to impossible to source these fruits locally • Leftovers. “If you run out of food, or there during the winter months. Focus on fresh is none left by the end of Kiddush, then the fruits when they’re in season in your area, amounts were perfect,” Edith Stevenson and when they’re not, consider dried or comments. “The idea that we must have canned. LOTS of food at a Kiddush is a Jewish tradition that I think is just plain wrong!” If • Can the soda. Avoid sugary sodas and fruit you do have leftovers, consider donating punches – instead, serve seltzers, 100% real them to a local Food Bank or other food fruit juices (and scotch, of course!). A grape recovery organization. juice to try: If you live in the Northeaset, 30

(and not particularly flavorful) honey. This year, dip your apples in delicious, raw honey produced by a small-scale apiary. Try Bee Raw Honey, Marshall’s Honey (raw, kosher) or Tropical Traditions (raw, kosher).

• Make it Maple. Hazon’s favorite Orthodox maple syrup farmer, Rabbi Shmuel Simenowitz, celebrates the New Year with his family by dipping apples into maple syrup from his own trees. Join him in this sweet twist on traditional by switching to maple syrup.

Suggestions for a Healthy and • Seasonal centerpieces. Instead of fresh- Sustainable cut flowers that will wilt after a few days, create a sustainable centerpiece that will The holiday of Rosh Hashana is the perfect impress your guests. Place 12 heirloom time to open up to new possibilities and be apples or pomegranates in a glass bowl, or grateful for everything you have. It’s a time to place potted fall flowers (chrysanthemums, let the blasts of the shofar shake you awake zinnias, marigolds etc.) around the table to to the world around you. And more than add seasonal color. anything, Rosh Hashana offers the opportunity • Highlight local flavors. Rosh Hashana for tshuva (returning/repentance) – to return to comes at a time of abundant harvest in our best, most full versions of ourselves. As we most parts of the world. Celebrate your turn inward, we have the chance to ask, “what local harvest by offering dishes made from impact do our actions have on our friends and your CSA vegetables or from a farmer’s family, our communities, and on the earth?” market. Here are some suggestions for a healhty and sustainable Rosh Hashana: • Celebrate the non-local food. Pomegranates are an important symbolic • Go apple picking! (Find a Pick-your-own food on Rosh Hashana, but are not farm at pickyourown.org.) necessarily local to most regions in America. • Avoid the honey bear. Apples and Instead of eschewing them entirely, take honey are two of the most recognizable the moment to recognize why you are Jewish holiday foods. Meanwhile, the including this food and how it fits into your emergence “colony collapse disorder” (the celebration. Ask someone at your dinner mass disappearance of bees from hives) table to prepare a few words (a poem indicates that something is awry in the bee or fact sheet) about pomegranates, or community. Meanwhile, the ubiquitous whatever other food you’d like to highlight. honey bear that sits in most of our cabinets • Cast away cleanup. Tashlich is one of the tends to be filled with industrially-produced most beautiful moments of Rosh Hashana 31

where we head towards a flowing body plate to recognize women’s rights and solidarity of water and toss in bread to symbolically with Middle East peace. In the same spirit, we cast away our sins. As part of your Rosh offer these suggestions to help you celebrate Hashana preparation, take a day in the the holiday in sustainable style. week leading up to the holiday (and bring your friends and kids) to “clean up” the BEFORE PASSOVER river or watershed where you will perform • Get rid of your Chametz – sustainably. the tashlich ritual. Collect any garbage or You don’t have to douse your house in bottles lying about and walk around to poisonous chemicals—noxious to both you get a lay of the land. When you come back and the people who work in the factories the next week, note if you feel a different that produce them—to get rid of your connection to the space. chametz (bread products and crumbs which are literally, and ritually, cleared Healthy, Sustainable Passover before Pesach). Try using natural, non- toxic cleaning products such as Seventh Resources Generation and Ecover.

SUSTAINABLE SEDER PLATE Also known as “Chag Ha-Matzot” (possibly a holiday celebrating the new barley harvest) and • Every Charoset tells a story. Charoset’s Chag Ha-Aviv (“holiday of spring”), Passover is mixture of apples and nuts is already a time to notice and celebrate the coming of healthy and delicious and, when made spring. The seder plate abounds with seasonal with local apples, sustainable. Charoset symbols: the roasted lamb bone celebrates also offers you the chance to explore other lambs born in spring; karpas symbolizes the cultures within the Jewish Diaspora. Google first green sprouts peaking out of the thawed the word “Charoset” to find recipes from ground; and a roasted egg recalls fertility and Russia, Spain, Holland, Yemen, Turkey, rebirth. Surinam… – or ask your guests to bring their own favorite charoset recipe and have Pesach offers a perfect opportunity to combine a taste-test. the wisdom of a traditional Jewish holiday with our contemporary desire to live healthily and • Fairly Traded Pecans. Equal Exchange sustainable in our world. For example, some recently launched a new line of fairly-traded families put an orange or olive on their seder pecans grown by an agricultural co- operative in Southwest Georgia. Infuse your charoset with the taste of justice, or offer as a pre-dinner nibble for hungry seder guests.

• Sprout your own Karpas. If you can’t find locally grown greens to dip for karpas, sprout your own! Although many sprouts come from corn, soybeans, and other chametz or kitnyot (species not eaten on Passover) in just 2-3 days, you can have fresh, delicious quinoa sprouts that you “grew” yourself!

• Buy and grate fresh horseradish root for 32

your seder plate. When it comes time for chametz.” Menu ideas: almond quinoa the Hillel sandwich, hold up an ungrated salad (quinoa is Kosher for Pesach!), matza root so your guests know where that bitter lasagna, vegetarian matzah ball soup, stuff comes from. roasted new potatoes with rosemary, , borscht, garlic sautéed fiddleheads… • Free-range betza (egg). Buy organic, free- range eggs, and be willing to pay slightly • Host a potluck seder. Or at least accept more for them. They taste better, didn’t offers of help with the preparation. A cause suffering to the animals who laid sustainable seder also means not wearing them, and support farmers who are making out the host! it possible for you to eat good food. • Buy vegetables at your farmer’s • Roast a beet. If you’re going vegetarian for market. Go a few weeks early and chat your seder (see below), substitute a roasted with the sellers to see what they’ll have beet for the roasted lamb shank. Or follow available the first week of April. In many The Jew & The Carrot reader, Sarah Fenner’s parts of the country, green options will suggestion: “In place of the shankbone in be slim, but you may find salad greens, my home, we have often roasted a “pascal cabbage, fiddleheads, spinach, as well as yam” instead!” root vegetables in cold storage (carrots, potatoes, onions, squash, beets) and apples THE SEDER TABLE: FOOD & DECORATION and pears. Consider making at least one • Enjoy your flowers on Pesach—and all dish all local, and feature it at your seder. spring. Fresh bouquets make beautiful • Serve local, organic . Find out ahead centerpieces, but only last a few days, of time what your local wine store has in and are often grown with pesticides. Try a stock—especially if you plan to buy a lot sustainable alternative like potted tulips or of bottles. If they don’t have anything, potted herbs. ask them to order a case on your behalf. • Bring on the hors d’oeuvres. After you There aren’t many kosher organic bless and eat the karpas, vegetables and available, but one or two are Kosher for dip, fruits, and cheese are all permitted. Pesach. Consider paying a little more at a Save your table from starvation and locally-owned store—sustainable means distraction with a few snacks – everyone supporting local businesses, too. will have a better time. • Use recycled or plant-based disposables. • Serve local / ethically-sourced meat. Try Pesach is a time when many families break buying your meat from the person who out the fine china and heirloom silverware. raised it (or as close to that as possible.) But if you’re using disposable plates this Where to shop: farmers’ markets, meat year, use post-consumer waste paper or order co-ops, local butcher shops (ask them plant-based ones. where the meat comes from). If you’re looking for kosher organic meat, try the companies listed in the Producer Guide.  MORE LNKS at hazon.org/foodguide/ch4 • Host a vegetarian or vegan seder. Even if you regularly eat meat, Pesach is a great time to eat lower on the food chain. Think of it as getting rid of your “gastronomical